


Insomnia

by King_Oj



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Black Out, Dreaming, Drinking, Healing, Hunk (Voltron) is so Pure, Insomnia, Intoxication, Keith (Voltron) is Bad at Feelings, Lucid Dreaming, M/M, Mental Health Issues, Mental Instability, Near Death, Near Death Experiences, SHEITH - Freeform, Senses, Sick Character, Sickfic, drunk, drunk dreams, insomiac, red lion - Freeform, shiro is such a sweet boy awh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-21
Updated: 2017-10-21
Packaged: 2019-01-21 01:38:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,491
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12446708
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/King_Oj/pseuds/King_Oj
Summary: After weeks of not sleeping right, Keith is willing to try anything to get some shut eye.





	Insomnia

**Author's Note:**

> Hi everyone, I hope you enjoy this! Comments and feedback are always appreciated and I hope you are having a good day/night!
> 
> Bye!

Insomnia

 

It was 3:25 in the morning and Keith was making his fifth lap of the whole castle- insomnia was kicking him up the ass again. He had always suffered from it, back in the Garrison he would cope by borrowing Shiro’s hover bike and flying it out of bounds until he came back exhausted or he fell asleep and landed somewhere in the surrounding desert. Shiro would always come get him them, but now times were different, they had Galra to fight, enemies to kill, insomnia just couldn’t be an option- nevertheless it didn’t stop.

 _Guess it’s gonna be a rough one tonight eh Red._ He thought to himself as he made connections silently to his lion. He felt the energy of Red replying to say- _Come join me._ In his slightly dillusional state he made his way to the lion, who was ready with her mouth open to let him in. _Ah what the Hell, maybe she’ll help._ He walked in and made his way to the pilot chair, the soothing leather greeted his tired back as he reached for the controls. _A short trip to the neighbouring galaxy should be fine, hopefully the stars there will do some funky shit to make me sleep._ And with that thought, Red began to take him around as he relaxed into the seat. _This is nice.. Just me and Red.. in space.. who knows how far from Earth.. Fuck._ Red sent him a jolt of energy almost as if to say he’s working himself up again and he needs to chill the fuck out. _Yeah.. You’re probably right.. Just me and Red.. in space.. amongst the stars.. How ‘bout that?_  Silence. _Awh come on.. isn’t this lion bonding or something speak to me goddamit._ Still nothing. Being stubborn just like her paladin, sometimes Red would stop communicating and just do her own thing, blocking out the world.

Keith felt the first yawn of the night coming on, a step in the direction of resting his tired soul. He fiddled with the cuffs of his sleeves.. _Too tight.._ Despite the seemingly relaxing situation, Keith’s mind was buzzing with stuff, good and bad. Red sensed this and shut off the internal lights and dimmed the windows. Hours passed as Keith continued to stare up at the dark ceiling of Red. At this point he was willing to go to that one alien pub place that Coran said he got his various sleeping supplements which he thought would work on humans. _Red, what d’ya think?_   She stayed silent as she turned around in the direction of the planet with the pub.

On entry, Keith’s brain was almost entranced by the scent of all the different alien drinks. Maybe this was his chance to finally try some, he wasn’t on a mission or anything so nothing too bad could happen. _Aghh.. Age limit 1400? Well I guess I look it with my eyebags anyway._ He thought as he proceeded to walk to the counter.

“Er.. Hi, one slathasar viotin with an extra shot of grenun. Thanks.” The hooded bar tender gave him a strange glance but then turned away to make the drink. _If this doesn’t lull me to sleep then I don’t know what will.._   
“Hey.. Little guy, slathasar’s done.” The bar alien said as Keith snarled at the fact of being called little, but then again he was considerably smaller than all the other folk there. He found an empty table and downed the drink in a few gulps, expecting an instant reaction he was left disappointed.  
“Bro, another one please.” He shouted over to the tender who nodded and poured the second. Keith tried drinking this one slower, making sure to get every last bit of it. It tasted so damn good. _Some hleghin shots sound good right now,_ he thought as his common sense drifted away.

Half an hour later, Keith found himself in the midst of what seemed like an alien drinking game in which they poured some of every drink in the bar in to one huge glass could light up. The one who hit the table that triggered the light to flash had to drink the whole thing. As experienced at drinking as Keith thought he was, these aliens were veterans. After flashing the light for the third time, Keith stumbled back to his lion in an angry slur.

“-I comm-and y-ouu to flyyyyy!” Keith said as he slumped into his seat. The lion took to the skies and began flying amongst the stars like they had before. _Keith. Keith. Dude where are we going?_   Red tried to get through to her paladin, who was out like a light. _Well I’m gonna fly around as long as you’re not dead buddy, hope you don’t mind.. you drunk fuck._

~

“Keith, what the hell are you doing? Paladins don’t mess up, paladins don’t fucking leave without notice. People died today. They died because of your shitty self control.” Shiro’s raging voice pierced Keith’s ears, what did he even do? Why did everything seem so surreal? “I’m not even here, I died too. You killed me. I’m a hologram.” Shiro’s frame flickered away. The most Keith could do was let out a silent scream that faded into nothing.

“WE HELPED YOU ALL THIS TIME.” Pidge yelled through tears. “WE FIXED YOUR SHIT, YOUR ISSUES, EVERYTHING CRAP ABOUT YOU AND IT ALL CAME BACK. WHY CAN’T YOU BE FUCKING STRONGER SOMETIMES KEITH.” He flinched and turned around to see Princess Allura lying motionless on the ground. Her left side was bleeding a purple substance, she had been stabbed.

“Keith you moron. Everthing’s gone. The castle, your friends, nothing worth anything is still here.”   
“Is this what you wanted, Keith?”  
“Maybe it’s time for you to die with us, pay your debt.”  
“Keith.”

~

“Keith…” He heard faint voices calling to him. “Keith! Hang in there babe it’s gonna be ok.” His eyes twitched open just enough to see Shiro’s face staring down at him.   
“Taka..” He mumbled as his mind slipped back into the abyss.  
“Keith.. Keith baby.. We’re taking you back to the castle, please stay with me..” The younger man felt his entire body being picked up by someone of a larger, sturdier frame.  
“Taka.. Where?” He said with a numb mind.  
“To the castle, you’re pretty sick. Coran can fix you up it’s ok.” Shiro said with his warm, soothing voice. “I’m gonna keep talking ok Keith, focus on my voice. Remember it’s me- Shiro. Ok we’re nearly there now. You’re in my lion but don’t worry, Red is following suite. She sent out a really strong signal when you stopped breathing so she’s pretty weak right now.” The older man felt warm tears soaking his shirt. “Hey.. Keith.. It’s ok, you’re safe now. You’re with me baby. When you’re better we can travel the galaxy together if you want.” Shiro felt a nudge of agreement from his boyfriend. “Coran’s going to help you into a pod now, don’t worry.” Shiro said as he helped Coran ease the man into the healing pod.

The next four hours were torture for the other paladins, they all sat at the foot of Keith’s pod fretting. Coran ran tests to find that Keith had tried to intoxicate himself to sleep with all kinds of poisonous alien drinks and remedies, the same drinks that the people of Altea drank for fun, carefree as they were non affected by the hidden dangers.  
“Shiro, get ready to catch him, I’m waking him up.” Coran said as the leading paladin went to stand in front of Keith’s pod.

Keith found himself falling into Shiro’s arms and being brought into a tight hug.  
“Keith.. We were so worried.” He said as the other paladins came to join the embrace.  
“I thought you- you were dead!” Hunk said, blubbing into a tissue.  
“In all serious though, you put yourself in grave danger. I had to resuscitate you like we do on Earth, where are all your emergency supplies? I told you to keep some in the lion at all times.” Before Shiro could continue his rant, Keith had fallen asleep in his arms. Panicking, Shiro assumed he was out cold again and tried to put him down to begin CPR again before he was stopped by Coran.  
“Shiro, he’s exhausted. Sleep is the best medicine for the mind, take him to your room if it gives you peace of mind but he needs the rest.” The flustered paladin picked up his boyfriend once more and began the walk to his room. He gazed down at the sleeping man, he was clearly drained and hadn’t slept in at least a week. Shiro opened the door to his room and placed Keith down on the left side of his bed. Tired himself, Shiro slumped down and drifted off to sleep alongside his lover, hugging him tightly as they both dreamed.


End file.
